and: William Adair Bernoudy Architect: Bringing the Legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright to St. Louis https://www.amazon.com/dp/0826212247/?coliid=I1DFZ5YJSPQXGR&colid=JQZ7TWIJJJT9&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
and The Lost St. Louis Riverfront by Thomas C Grady https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51057071-the-lost-st-louis-riverfront
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The one by Osmund Overby? I used to sing with him back in the day. He also wrote about early vernacular houses in central and northeast Missouri. Got to talk with him about vernacular houses some. He was a great guy and is much missed in Columbia.framer wrote: ↑Feb 10, 2022Just picked up this awesome coffee-table book on local architect William Bernoudy. Fantastic book; can't praise it enough:
https://www.amazon.com/William-Adair-Be ... 0826212247
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^I need to find myself a copy of that. If I recall correctly one of my professors lived down the street from a house featured in it and an acquaintance actually lived in a second in the same neighborhood. (Which has a third example a few blocks south.) Bernoudy did some truly incredible work. And I've long had a kind of hero-crush on Obata. I'm oddly jealous. I'll have to see if Left Bank or Dunaway have a copy.
The Arch is included in David Macaulay's tongue-in-cheek classic Motel of the Mysteries (set in the year 4022):
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^Heh! Nice! I'm definitely curious what caused five hundred ninety feet of sedimentation.
^
"In 1985 a cataclysmic coincidence of previously unknown proportion extinguished virtually all forms of life on the North American continent.
On the morning of November 29th, an accidental reduction in postal rates on a substance called third- and fourth-class mail literally buried the North Americans under tons of brochures, fliers, and small containers called "Free".
That afternoon, impurities that had apparently hung unnoticed in the air for centuries finally succumbed to the force of gravity and collapsed on what was left of an already stunned population."
"In 1985 a cataclysmic coincidence of previously unknown proportion extinguished virtually all forms of life on the North American continent.
On the morning of November 29th, an accidental reduction in postal rates on a substance called third- and fourth-class mail literally buried the North Americans under tons of brochures, fliers, and small containers called "Free".
That afternoon, impurities that had apparently hung unnoticed in the air for centuries finally succumbed to the force of gravity and collapsed on what was left of an already stunned population."
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^Is David Macaulay secretly another pseudonym for Terry Pratchett? I love it! Clearly I need to find a copy of this book.
One of the stories in John Grisham's new collection of legal thrillers is set in St. Louis.
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Didn’t know Grisham was a big Cardinal fan:
https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/ ... -top-story
https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/ ... -top-story
In France, I found a biography about Josephine baker which includes her childhood in Saint Louis. It includes illustrations of various Saint Louis Locations.




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^^Truly lovely. I ought to look this book up. And have a friend translate it. 
There's a new book coming out about the history of Mississippi Nights:
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/mississip ... n=65586254
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/mississip ... n=65586254
Review: St. Louis paid a heavy price to help build an atomic bomb
https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/ ... the-latest
https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/ ... the-latest
Not sure if this has been posted before, but there's a nifty comic series (graphic novel?) set in St. Louis. The Atonement Bell.
"Months after a brutal tragedy, young Jake and his mother travel to St. Louis to visit their estranged family during the holidays. Soon, Jake, his cousin Baby Al, and their Bosnian friend Sara must fight for their very lives when they discover the truth about the city's devastating secret past."
https://www.red5comics.com/atonement-bell
"Months after a brutal tragedy, young Jake and his mother travel to St. Louis to visit their estranged family during the holidays. Soon, Jake, his cousin Baby Al, and their Bosnian friend Sara must fight for their very lives when they discover the truth about the city's devastating secret past."
https://www.red5comics.com/atonement-bell
Santa left this one under the tree for me last night. It's a new book featuring numerous short, interesting bits of St. Louis folklore.
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Just saw this one from U. Chicago Press at the bookstore:
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo ... 82791.html
The photos look gorgeous.
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo ... 82791.html
The photos look gorgeous.
Architecture of the Private Streets of St. Louis: The Architects and the Houses They Designed Hardcover – January 1, 1987
by Charles C. Savage
https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Private-Streets-St-Louis/dp/0826204856/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=architecture+of+the+private+streets+of+st.+louis&qid=1703617996&sr=8-1
by Charles C. Savage
https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Private-Streets-St-Louis/dp/0826204856/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=architecture+of+the+private+streets+of+st.+louis&qid=1703617996&sr=8-1
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Take a look at my novels about St. Louis, A Universe Less Traveled and A Universe Disrupted, by Eric von Schrader. They imagine another St. Louis that exists alongside ours. The stories describe the adventures of people who discover how to move back and forth between the cities and present a vision of a city that developed very differently. The books are fun and entertaining, without violence or sex. The final book in the trilogy, A Universe Revealed, will be published in March 2024.
Learn more at ericvonschrader.com.
I read the first book. I didn't realize it was a series. I'll have to check 'em out.
Here's a new book set in St. Louis: Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers, by James Aylott
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"Missouri Towers, once the swankiest address in St. Louis, but now tagged "Misery Towers," is a shabby apartment building blessed with breathtaking views of the iconic Gateway Arch. Amongst its eccentric dwellers is a trapeze artist whose love life is dangling from a wire, a struggling realtor who can never close a deal, a Bosnian immigrant who is infused with the spirit of Winston Churchill, an aging stripper who refuses to relinquish her grip on the pole, an undertaker on a mission of vengeance, a broken-hearted soul searching for his own pretty woman - one hooker at a time, a beat cop tired of dodging bullets, and a dogged collector of lucky pennies who picks up a cursed coin. On a hot and dangerous August night, against the backdrop of a city on edge, the interwoven lives of these characters will collide with devastating consequences.
By turns, hilarious, bawdy, tender, and tragic, Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers is a fast-paced, action-packed novel, filled with razor-sharp prose and cringe-worthy dark humor. It offers a unique insight into the psychological landscape of life in a Rust Belt city, plagued with violence and wrestling decline."

"Missouri Towers, once the swankiest address in St. Louis, but now tagged "Misery Towers," is a shabby apartment building blessed with breathtaking views of the iconic Gateway Arch. Amongst its eccentric dwellers is a trapeze artist whose love life is dangling from a wire, a struggling realtor who can never close a deal, a Bosnian immigrant who is infused with the spirit of Winston Churchill, an aging stripper who refuses to relinquish her grip on the pole, an undertaker on a mission of vengeance, a broken-hearted soul searching for his own pretty woman - one hooker at a time, a beat cop tired of dodging bullets, and a dogged collector of lucky pennies who picks up a cursed coin. On a hot and dangerous August night, against the backdrop of a city on edge, the interwoven lives of these characters will collide with devastating consequences.
By turns, hilarious, bawdy, tender, and tragic, Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers is a fast-paced, action-packed novel, filled with razor-sharp prose and cringe-worthy dark humor. It offers a unique insight into the psychological landscape of life in a Rust Belt city, plagued with violence and wrestling decline."
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^Well, I shared a beer with a friend who, I believe, lives there last night. I'll have to ask him if he knows any of the characters. Unless he collects coins I think he at least dodged inclusion in the novel. Sounds fun! 
Harry Gets Wise by Michael Vines (who happens to be my uncle) is inspired by the life of my great-grandfather, Harry Beckerman, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who owned a shoe repair shop on Warne Avenue in North St. Louis. The story is fiction, but the book is loaded with St. Louis references and real people and places. The cover photo is real- that’s my great-grandpa Harry Beckerman in front of his shoe repair shop, Liberty Shoe Doctor.
I may be biased, but the novel is fantastic and a must-read for any St. Louis enthusiast. Michael is a brilliant writer (check out his other novels too- St. Louis figures prominently in all of them). So far, it has been featured in the Post-Dispatch, STLPR and the St. Louis Jewish Light.
Pick up a copy locally at STL Style House, Left Bank Books, Subterranean Books, The Novel Neighbor, Missouri History Museum gift shop, or order online on Amazon or stl-style.com.
PS: I am stlgasm, but I got locked out of my old account so here I am starting from scratch. If anyone can reactivate my original stlgasm account I’d be greatly appreciative!
I may be biased, but the novel is fantastic and a must-read for any St. Louis enthusiast. Michael is a brilliant writer (check out his other novels too- St. Louis figures prominently in all of them). So far, it has been featured in the Post-Dispatch, STLPR and the St. Louis Jewish Light.
Pick up a copy locally at STL Style House, Left Bank Books, Subterranean Books, The Novel Neighbor, Missouri History Museum gift shop, or order online on Amazon or stl-style.com.
PS: I am stlgasm, but I got locked out of my old account so here I am starting from scratch. If anyone can reactivate my original stlgasm account I’d be greatly appreciative!






